Most of the time, I want to be gaming. If you’re here, probably, you can relate. In the grand scheme of personality traits, that one isn’t so bad; just not 100 per cent satiable in every circumstance. Sometimes I find myself in an unfortunate situation involving me, chilling, and several other people who don’t play games, also chilling, all in the same room. Like, I wouldn’t even pitch Mario Kart to these guys.
I recently discovered a game for these lamentable moments.
Stick Fight
Stick Fight: The Game is a goofy couch multiplayer PC game about stick people battling it out in absurd platforms. It is a game about dying every few seconds under increasingly ridiculous circumstances: Toppling pillars made of boxes, conveyor belts with lasers, cannons full of snakes.
The level changes after each round. It requires basically no gaming skill because it isn’t a fair game. It has stupid physics. Random stuff happens constantly. Everybody I’ve introduced it to has loved it.
In theory, the last stick man standing wins each round, but there aren’t really points or anything. What makes winning rewarding isn’t a stat, but a big message that appears on screen after each round: “WOW!”, “GG”, “REKT.”
Sometimes, words appear reading, “People should gang up on Blue / They have killed the rest of you 27 times.” It’s competitive in short spurts, and after seconds, the tension melts away and a new round begins on a new level.
The rhythm of low stakes fights with high stakes moments is why Stick Fight walks that perfect line between unintimidating and engaging enough to intrigue non-gamers. It has just enough randomness to mess up regular game-players and bolster newbies’ chances to win, too.
Now, when your friends say things such as, “Let’s go dancing! You always want to play Super Smash Bros.,” you have a response ready: “I heard about this game Stick Fight on this great website Kotaku and, man, does now seem like a great time to check it out!”
Comments
9 responses to “Stick Fight Is A Perfect Game To Play With Non-Gamers”
What about the Duck Game?
Cool I’ll give this game a look.
Has anyone else got any other game ideas for non gamers?
I tried overcooked, it was great but easily got too hard for the non gamer friends in only a few levels.
Duck game like above is a bit too intense for my friends but with my gamer mates we have an awesome time with it.
on pc try hidden in plain sight, ragdoll masters, blazerush & speedrunners
So we roll with a couple of options that I think are really fun, even if you are playing with people that don’t play games;
-Gang Beasts (pc & ps4) is an odd brawler game that is decent in short bursts
-Eon Altar (pc) if you are looking for something interesting and long term, it is worth noting that everyone needs an Android or iPhone to play Eon
-What the Box (pc) is where we start getting into the good stuff, everyone is a box in a box factory trying to kill each other with either a three shot gun or a box cutter. It is amazing for bluffing and memory.
-Lethal League (pc only unfortunately) is a dodgeball meets street fighter title where you are aiming to control a quickly accelerating ball and knock it into your enemies. It is all sorts of great.
-Armello (pc & ps4) a great little Australian virtual board game. It has a lot of options to win and allows for custom settings to mix things up.
-Besiege (pc) craft a machine and do battle with another player, the fun of this game is found in how imaginative you can be during creation. Most times the most straightforward designs are the least interesting.
-Blackwake (pc) fps boat game. Essentially what they modelled Sea of Thieves on as pvp only style game, but it is most fun when playing with people that aren’t great at games.
-Depths (pc) 2 sharks vs 4 divers, a symmetrical pvp game that is a lot of fun. There can be issues if the skill difference is too high and your better players get team stacked, but if you make sure that doesn’t happen this is a great game with friends.
It was meant to be a shortlist, but I kind of suck at formatting my thoughts in a way that doesn’t seem like rambling.
Oh dude you’re awesome. I’ll definitely give this a go. Good work
Gang Beasts? Same kinda low stakes, multiplayer shenanigans except it’s like wrestlemania with play dough people. My non gaming lady friend enjoys taking on my more gaming inclined mates and has a great time with it.
Try Move or Die it’s quite similar to this one, with rules and scenarios changing constantly in short, machine-gun fast games with only one constant rule: remain still for over a second and you’ll auto-lose.
Still think a Kotaku cheap games night would be interesting. Much shit talking to be had.
I have ~350 games in my steam library, and little have as much value as stick fight. I cannot recommend it enough, and in my opinion is the most fun out of all the goofy indie multiplayer craze from the last few years.